Chapter 081: Come On, Say Something!

Chapter 081: Come On, Say Something!

In the old street area of the East District, the blue Lamborghini had been sitting at the curb outside the alley for hours, and nobody knew whose it was. When Wu Chen brought Su Qingying back, he had been very careful. At one point he’d gotten out alone to buy face masks before returning.

He wasn’t worried about neighbors or acquaintances seeing him. Su Qingying was another matter.

As Jinfu Group’s successor and Donghai’s number-one beauty, Su Qingying was simply too well known in this city. These past few days she’d been in the news constantly because of the July 7 heist, with far more public exposure than usual.

Her face could not be seen.

So Wu Chen had bought two masks, and spared them the complications that came with being recognized.

It was already past two in the afternoon.

He had brought her back a little after ten. Four full hours had passed.

Fifth floor, Wu Chen’s home. The bedroom.

Wu Chen was working a small scraper across the top of the little cabinet, lifting off candle wax. He’d bought the candle along with the masks, and it had been used. Too much of it had burned—more than half the candle had melted away, and a great deal of wax had run down onto the table.

Once the table was clean,

he picked the rope up off the floor, coiled it, and stuffed it into the lower drawer of the cabinet. And the fly swatter… that one had already been in the apartment. Though Wu Chen had moved out and no longer lived here, he’d taken only some clothes and toiletries. Donghai Huafu was move-in ready, so there had been nothing else worth hauling over.

He had washed the fly swatter when he first got back. It was clean.

While Wu Chen busied himself, Su Qingying lay behind him, wrapped in the quilt, already asleep.

She had a habit of napping in the afternoons—good for the skin. Of course, what had put her to sleep now had nothing to do with any nap. She was simply exhausted. She slept deep and sweet, a faint smile resting at the corner of her mouth.

Ring, ring…

Wu Chen’s phone went off.

He turned, picked it up, glanced at the screen, then answered. “They traced it to you?”

“Brother-in-law… uh, brother-in-law, you already know?” It was Li Ruotai.

“Mm.” Wu Chen answered with a nasal murmur.

After coming back, during one of the pauses, Wu Chen had asked Su Qingying who else knew about the file she’d pulled on him. She said she’d destroyed the materials once she was done reading. She really had been careful, because she was afraid her parents would find out she had personally investigated a young man.

Whom she investigated wasn’t the issue. The issue was that the subject was a young male. That was how careful she had to be.

And the only reason she’d been able to look him up so easily was that Wu Chen had texted her first. She had his phone number, registered under his real name.

Her mother didn’t.

Her mother could get his number too—pull Su Qingying’s call records and there it was—but she probably wouldn’t start there. The first line of inquiry would be Wu Chen’s blue Lamborghini. Run the plate, get the registered owner.

Except the Lamborghini wasn’t in Wu Chen’s name. It was in Wang Zhuangyuan’s. The title had never been transferred.

Wu Chen only drove the car. Violations and the like weren’t his problem. Wang Zhuangyuan handled all of that.

So obviously, Su Qingying’s mother would find Wang Zhuangyuan first.

And obviously, Wang Zhuangyuan wouldn’t hand over Wu Chen’s information easily.

Wu Chen understood these people far too well. He could work out, step by step, exactly how each of them would react.

“…Zhuangyuan called me first. Said Madam Su had gotten in touch and asked who was driving the car. He didn’t have a choice, and he didn’t dare say anything about you, brother-in-law, so he pushed it to me. Then Madam Su called me too…” Li Ruotai laid it out briefly.

Wang Zhuangyuan really did know how to handle things.

He treated Wu Chen like someone to be worshiped, but in the end he was closer to Li Ruotai, and certain matters were easier to raise with Li Ruotai.

“What did you tell her?” Wu Chen asked idly, turning his head as he spoke.

He’d heard movement behind him. Su Qingying had been woken.

Wrapped in the quilt, she blinked up at him, her eyes like a woman’s in the thick of a love affair… They weren’t in love, of course. Her eyes only looked that way. Because she was an M, and after what had passed between them, what Wu Chen made her feel, and where he stood in her heart, had changed completely.

Wu Chen reached out and ruffled her hair.

Su Qingying crawled a little closer, tilted her head, rubbed against the back of his hand, then caught it and bit lightly at his fingertip.

She made no sound.

She knew perfectly well he was on the phone.

“…I just said you were my brother-in-law. Said you and my sister were about to get married.” Li Ruotai went on, “Brother-in-law, what’s actually going on? The Su family has been digging into you for two days now. My sister told you yesterday, didn’t she? When Madam Su called just now, from her tone she was seriously angry. I asked whether you’d offended her, brother-in-law, and she wouldn’t say. Just that she was looking for you…”

Of course Madam Su wouldn’t say. She didn’t permit her daughter a single stain, so for now she was looking only for Wu Chen, and Su Qingying’s name would never come up.

“I told her that if there was a problem she could take it up with me. She wouldn’t say anything to that either. She even said it had nothing to do with the Li family, only with you, brother-in-law.” Li Ruotai finished, “Then she hung up.”

“Mm. All right. Understood,” Wu Chen said.

“Brother-in-law, what exactly is—brother-in-law, you don’t have to keep things from me. If there’s trouble, I’ll carry it for you. We’re family. No need to stand on ceremony with me,” Li Ruotai said.

“It’s nothing. A small problem.” Wu Chen smiled as he said it. “Do you think anything could happen to me?”

“I know you’re something else, brother-in-law. It’s just, this time it’s pretty strange…”

“Enough. Stay out of it. I’ll handle it. I’m hanging up.”

“Then… all right…”

Wu Chen ended the call. Everything was tracking exactly as he’d expected.

Ding-dong!

Ding-dong!

He’d barely set the phone down when two notification tones came one after the other. He picked it up again: two alert texts. While he’d been talking to Li Ruotai, someone had called and failed to get through, so the missed-call notices had come in.

Li Ruobing.

Most likely Li Ruotai had called his sister first, right after speaking with Madam Su.

Wu Chen didn’t believe Madam Su would call Li Ruobing directly. Once she learned the man who had taken her daughter away was Li Ruobing’s boyfriend, she wouldn’t ring up to demand answers. She might even start doubting herself, questioning her own judgment.

Li Ruobing’s boyfriend, daring to abduct another woman?

Confronting her outright wasn’t practical. Madam Su was afraid of the thing blowing up. And most of all, with a temperament like Li Ruobing’s, there would be no indulgence. Say one wrong word and Li Ruobing would tear her apart verbally.

Madam Su’s standing in Donghai was extremely high. She was the wife of the city’s richest man, after all. And when she married Su Ruiwen, he had been wealthy but nowhere near as wealthy as he was now. Which meant that most of Su Ruiwen’s richest-man fortune was marital property.

On top of that, Su Ruiwen respected and doted on his wife. Madam Su was an intellectual, and over the years she had been an enormous help to his career.

Madam Su could ring Li Ruotai directly and ask what was going on. She wouldn’t vent her temper on him—she wasn’t that thoughtless. And even if words got sharp between them, they could patch it up afterward.

Li Ruobing was different.

A clash with Li Ruotai might not truly offend Li Ruotai; that could be smoothed over. But going after Li Ruobing would offend Li Ruotai directly, and for good.

Ring, ring…

Wu Chen had only just finished reading the texts when the phone rang again.

Li Ruobing’s third attempt. This one went through.

He answered.

“Ah Tai called me,” Wu Chen said first.

“What is going on with you?” Li Ruobing asked. Her tone held nothing but puzzlement. “How did you get tangled up with the Su family? From what Ah Tai says, it sounds like you must have offended them somehow. Yesterday they were investigating you on the quiet, and today they’re calling Ah Tai directly to ask about you…”

“You want to know?” There was a smile in Wu Chen’s voice.

“If you’re willing to tell me, tell me,” Li Ruobing said. She knew that when Wu Chen didn’t want to say something, he simply wouldn’t.

“Mm… hold on a second.” He turned back toward Su Qingying, held out the phone, and said, “Come on, say something!”